Water, Water Everywhere!

After an inquiry about the effects of the recent flooding in the Midwest, Marsha Whiteside Adams shared the following:

Yes, we have plugged our basement drains in case the water gets so high it affects the sanitary sewers.  This flood is different from 2011 in that it will only be a few weeks, not the 4 months we endured before, and not as high.  We have not been told to evacuate so far.

We had about 10" of snow on the ground, then 3" of rain in 2 days that caused the river ice to break up into chunks and the snow to melt too fast.  The other issue is that the ground is so frozen, it couldn't sink in, so all ran off into the rivers.  We had many days below zero this winter and all of February we were 20 degrees below normal.  Kind of the perfect storm thing.

There is what they call "minor flooding" on the 2 rivers that are within half a mile or less from us.  So far the levee they built after the last time has been high enough, but we are expecting another crest at the end of next week when the snowpack up north starts to melt. From what we heard today, not as high as they thought it might be, but things change really fast....

The worst of it starts about 20 miles south of us in Nebraska and Iowa, both states on the other sides of the 2 rivers near us.  Giant chunks of ice have caused ice dams and some have even ended up in people's houses.  Many towns evacuated, turned into islands, so many roads damaged and still covered with water that they have been flying people in and out.  Huge loss of livestock and many farmers won't be able to plant at all this year.  It is a mess.  It will be more than a few weeks for them and then the massive clean up effort. 

We are so thankful that this has not been as difficult for us.

Marsha

Ed. Note:  I read an account of what happened after an ice dam finally broke.  The man who was interviewed said it was like someone had pulled a plug, allowing the water to rush down the drain.  The flood waters decreased within just a few minutes, he said.